The sound of golf balls driven off the tee echo in the Hot Springs, Virginia, mountains as a group of PGA Tour hopefuls make their marks on the golf world through divots in the turf.
It was 25 years ago that an ambitious 21-year-old from Monroe was among that class of U.S. Amateur golfers. Sure, LSU golfer David Toms enjoyed playing as a Tiger, but he always had goals that exceeded college.
“The friendships that I made with my teammates, that still last today, was the best part of my LSU experience.” Toms said. “I knew I wanted to be a professional golfer and that was a goal I strived for since I was around 14.”
Toms’ aspirations as an amateur are shared with young golfers nowadays, including those at LSU, four of whom — juniors Ben Taylor, Landon Lyons, Myles Lewis and senior Stewart Jolly — competed in the 2013 U.S. Amateurs on Aug. 14.
“We’re gonna give it about three years after [college], and if it doesn’t work, we’ll go get an ole desk job,” Lewis said.
But adapting to a professional golfer’s everyday schedule with little rest is a challenge.
Recent LSU graduates John Peterson and Andrew Loupe both finished in the top 75 of the
Web.com Tour last week, getting one step closer to earning full rights to play on the PGA Tour in 2013-14. The two 2011 Tiger alumni recognize the uniqueness of playing in the professional circuit, and the work that goes along with it.
“I came into college just as confident as every other kid, but you spend your freshman year getting your face beat in and you realize that you need to get a little better.” Peterson said. “But out here, on tour, you’re playing every week. … It’s just a different game.”
On tour, courses change every week, hole locations change every day and days off don’t exist.
Two years removed from college, Loupe’s learned that it’s the little things in a golfer’s game which demand the most attention. He believes having a sound short game is a “big deal in saving shots.”
The expression “drive for show, putt for dough,” isn’t just a one-liner. In their young careers, Peterson and Loupe can attest to the amount of practice and patience it takes just to compete in a professional tournament.
“It’s taken me a while to get a finish in the top two or three,” Peterson said. “You know you’re time’s coming, but you just got to wait it out.”
Toms knows this all too well. Three years after Toms’ 1988 U.S. Amateur appearance, he earned his first full PGA Tour Card.
Ten years later, he won the 2001 PGA Championship, his only major victory and an achievement Toms said forever put him “in a special category.”
Still on tour at 46, Toms is energized by today’s rising golfers. And unlike other sports, a newly turned PGA Tour pro has the same shot at success as a 25th-year veteran.
“The golfers coming out of college now are pretty well adapted and adjusted,” Toms said. “It might take a while to have some success on the PGA Tour, but the young players have been playing against great competition for so long that they are ready.”
Golfers are on their own, fighting for their life in every match. Sportsmanship tops whatever the scoreboard reads, but even for two fellow Tigers, competition doesn’t get lost in the rough.
“It’s such an individual sport,” Peterson said. “You’re trying to beat the guy you’re playing with as bad as you can and you gotta somehow shake hands at the end and say ‘good playing.’ There’s nothing you can do, it’s you versus the course.”
While Loupe pulls for Peterson, the attitude changes on the links. Loupe likens Peterson as his brother — who’s trying to beat him “very badly.”
Playing alongside one’s peers is an experience singular to golf. Peterson and Toms are years apart, but the two golfers seem to have more in common than just a closet full of purple and gold.
Paired together in the third round of the 2012 U.S. Open, the duo ended up finishing the tournament tied for fourth place. However, the rare experience was a victory in itself.
“[Toms] has been a mentor to me for five, six years now,” Peterson said. “To get paired with him in my first major last year at the U.S. Open was really awesome. It was nice to be playing with the guy I felt really comfortable around in that kind of situation.”
When current Tigers pull on shirts labeled ‘LSU,’ they take pride in teeing off for a University that has seen its alumni have success at the highest level of the game.
“You want to be in that realm of athletes who succeed after college and it puts a good name for the LSU golf program.” Lewis said. “Obviously, we’re doing something right if we have people that are playing on tour. You just got to put in the work for it, though. Put in the work, things will come.”

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Courtesy USGA/Darren Carroll